Earlier this year, there was a health scare in Germany when an unknown internet savant asked supermarkets for a payment after he claimed to have contaminated baby food putting glass into several jars. The whole country followed the story and thanks to camera surveillance the culprit was quickly caught.

A similar incident on the other side of the planet this time round as in Queensland, Australia, a $100,000 reward has by now been offered for any information leading to the capture of the “strawberry saboteur” amid fears six brands across four states have been targeted with needle insertion.

So far, pictures have shown that any strawberries sold under the brands of Berry Obsession, Berry Licious and Donnybrook brands were affected. Meanwhile, the New South Wales police fear that a copycat is operating in the area as well and has started pinning needles into the fruit sold under the Love Berry, Delightful Strawberries and Oasis brands.

Queensland premier, Ms Annastacia Palaszczuk, said her office issued the reward over concerns for growers as well as consumers: “How could any right-minded person want to put a baby or a child or anybody’s health at risk by doing such a dreadful act?”

“This is putting families’ lives at risk and it’s also putting the strawberry industry at risk. We need to catch those responsible.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">WA STRAWBERRY FARMERS FORCED TO DUMP FRUIT: Thousands of kilometres from Queensland where strawberries were contaminated with needles, West Australian strawberry growers say the wholesale price has crashed and they are being forced to dump fruit <a href="https://t.co/e9ESRICSL6">pic.twitter.com/e9ESRICSL6</a></p>&mdash; ABC Rural (@ABCRural) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABCRural/status/1040507713636249600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2018</a></blockquote>